The Tudors : Update

An update to the ongoing inconsistencies with The Tudors: Because you know you care. From The Professor: 1) Last night, they introduced the character of Pope Paul III. The problem? The pope at the time was Clement VII. 2) Paul III (Who wasn't really pope yet) tells dude from England that he's going to send Dude to the Jesuits. Problem? Pope Paul III did, in fact, commission the Jesuit order - but not for 6 more years. There were, in fact, no Jesuits at that time to be sent to. Also, this can't really be an exact inconsistency, so I don't care, but I want it known that while Thomas Cranmer did sneak his wife into England (due to the fact that priests weren't supposed to have wives) - there is no evidence she arrived in a crate. What they got right: Anne's quote "I have a craving for apples", indicating she is pregnant.

This wasn't here the last time I was

World War II Memorial

Free Trips are awesome

In about 6 and a half hours, I'm leaving town for a week. I've been lucky enough to get travel money from work to go to DC for a few days for a conference. The good news is your tax dollars are working well for me. I get to stop and see the parental units and the baby brother on the way, and an aunt and uncle on the return trip. Thanks, America! Actually, for full disclosure and so I don't get hateful comments, I'm spending less money on travel than a coworker who is flying and not getting to visit family. You're welcome, America.

I < heart > John Scalzi

Because I seem to have started an "I <>"* thing here. And because I love this: http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=579 Thanks to my sis for the link. *for the geeky html-y types: the spaces in "<>"are because blogger wants to read it as a tag if the spaces aren't there, and doesn't recognize "heart" as a tag. And so it looks like "I John Scalzi" if I don't put the spaces. Which makes a lot less sense.

The Tudors: Blowing off some steam

Last year, The Tudors broke on Showtime, starring a completely yummiliscious Jonathan Rhys Meyers, someone I once thought I could watch reading the alphabet backwards for hours on end. Apparently, I can't watch him play Le Roi Henri. Which is sad on so many levels, but I think I'm going to just focus on why this makes me angry. Henry VIII life was dramatic. It was romantic, tragic, creative, inventive, volatile and about 1 kajillion other adjectives that I could list. It is really a story so unbelievable, that if it hadn't been so well documented due to the fact that he was a king (who kept killing wives and started a new religion, among other things), no one WOULD believe it. It's Hollywood come to life, only in the past. Before there was Hollywood. So why, Mr. Screenwriter, did you have to go and mess with it? I don't just mean it has something semi-annoying to people in the know like people using stirrups before they were invented. I mean people (Henry's illegitimate son) being born years too early, and then dying much younger (by about 20 years) than he actually did. I mean the wrong sister (of Henry) marrying the king of France. I mean putting a main character (Wolsey) in prison and having him commit suicide when he did NO SUCH THING. I mean the fact that they found a black haired-30 year old yummy-looking-drool worthy specimen to play a man that was 42 years old with reddish hair and - let's face it - the beginnings of a portly body. And didn't even try to disguise the fact that they look nothing alike, which in Hollywood is fairly easy to do these days. (probably because if they added 30 pounds of fat and some hair dye, most of the women swooning over the show would never have watched it in the first place). I think I can't watch it because I love the real story so much, there's so many shades of meaning and real-life dramas there - especially in Anne's story - and they've come close enough to touch the real thing - all of which centered on Henry's power, charm, charisma - and then WAM! They throw out something crazy. And I'll be honest - listening to The Professor yell at the TV takes something away from the whole thing a bit. I mean, what if someone wrote a series about the founding of the US, only they had George Washington winning every battle he set foot in? Or had Ben Franklin as the first president of the US? And why can't I turn off my brain and just be able to stare into JRM beautiful eyes for an hour?

Earth Hour 2008

From http://www8.earthhourus.org/: "On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund." Crunchy Domestic Goddess has some great ideas on how to spend that hour - and even if you don't have kids, don't think you can't use these ideas!

What do you get when you cross a yellow tabby with a green sneaker?

This is a video from The Original Redhead's birthday weekend. It's a long story as to why it hasn't made it up before now, and most of it involves error messages from various google services. But all's well that ends well. Unless you're a green shoe that's just been molested by a large male cat.

I < heart > Patrick Stewart

Hail should only fall during daylight hours

If The Professor is out of town, there should be no scary, jerk-awake, the-world-is-ending moments at 3:55 AM that involve waking up to the sound of millions of pieces of debris hitting the house (that turn out to be more than 1 inch pieces of hail), making the cats wail in complaint while your satellite chooses those 30 seconds to blink out (DAMN SATELLITE), insuring that you crawl out from under the blankets far enough to hit the "on" button on the laptop that you thoughtfully left sitting on the night stand (open) because you knew ahead of time that when you woke up in the middle of a bad storm at 4 AM you wouldn't have any TV signal to reassure you that, in fact, it is safe to once more close your eyes. If I don't have some busted out windows on a couple of vehicles in the morning, it will be a reason to eat Girl Scout cookies for breakfast. Since having busted out windows will also insure a need for opening the last box of Samoas at 8 AM, I'm pretty much in a win-win situation here.

My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants

What? That didn't make sense? http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/02/montana-girl-wi.html